The good news for LGBT Americans didn't end with the election night victories.

Today (Nov 14), we release the 11th edition of the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), and we have great news to share.

Despite historic wins for the LGBT community last week, we should remind ourselves that people can still be legally denied a job or fired simply for their sexual orientation in 29 states, and for their gender identity in 34.

Luckily, HRC has long rejected the idea that LGBT people should have to depend exclusively on the ballot box to guarantee equal protections in the workplace, and our corporate allies have surged well ahead of lagging legislation to afford these crucial workplace protections.

Over the past decade, we've learned that many companies are ready and eager to do the right thing. As you will see in the 2013 CEI, businesses have laid a foundation of workplace equality the likes of which no previous generation of employees and job-seekers has ever seen, and we celebrate some key milestones with this year's report.

• For the first time in history, a majority of the Fortune 500 offers both sexual orientation and gender identity protections.
• Last year, 189 major businesses accomplished a 100 percent rating on the most stringent scorecard the HRC Foundation has ever administered, including comprehensive benefits parity and more robust requirements of corporate responsibility to our community. This year, an incredible 252 businesses are receiving a perfect score, earning the title "Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality."
• This year we had the highest participation rate to date, with an impressive 54 brand new businesses completing the survey, bringing our total number of rated participants to 688.
• In this year's CEI, you will also see an exciting trend crystallizing: businesses are implementing an ethos of LGBT inclusion that goes beyond employee policies – as evidenced by the record numbers of businesses that stood with our community to endorse pro-equality legislation.

We thank our many partners in this work who have made this a successful year for corporate equality, and invite you to read about their progress in this year's CEI.

www.hrc.org